Marilyn Monroe's nude photo to be auctioned

The photograph of Marilyn Monroe in the nude that launched the icon on her road to fame will soon go under the hammer.

Clicked by photographer Tom Kelley in 1949, when Monroe was a jobless model, the photograph shows her lying on a red velvet cloth, the Daily Express reported. 

Kelly paid her just $50 for the picture which was used four years later in the first edition of Playboy magazine.

Marilyn, who had already changed her name from Norma Jeane Baker, put the money towards a car so she could drive around Hollywood searching for work.